A Superstar Returns With Another New Self

By LOLA OGUNNAIKE

Published: April 12, 2005

Nearly 3,000 people from as close as Midtown Manhattan and as far as Toronto flocked to the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side Saturday afternoon with one thing in mind -- getting a glimpse of the veteran pop star Mariah Carey. She was at the theater to tape a handful of songs for VH1's annual ''Save the Music'' special, to be broadcast this Sunday, and those in attendance could not have been more fervent.

''Mariah, I love you,'' screamed one breathless young woman in braces and boot-cut jeans. When asked why he opted to spend a sunny New York day indoors another fan said, in all earnestness, ''I think I've listened to 'Vision of Love' like 30,000 times.'' He was referring to the 1990 hit that put Ms. Carey on the map. ''Every day, I listen to that song in my car and press rewind over and over.''

So, it was only natural that when Ms. Carey, smiling like a veteran pageant queen, took the stage to perform a duet with the R&B singer John Legend, the crowd went wild. And anyone could have seen that Ms. Carey, sporting a tangerine Roberto Cavalli gown, baring a bit of midriff and a whole lot of leg, was going to bring down the house with ''It's Like That,'' the first single from her new album, ''The Emancipation of Mimi,'' which hits stores today. But just in case, the D.J., Fatman Scoop, who played hype-man for the day, took no chances. ''I don't care if you're a grandmother,'' he blared. ''I don't care if you have a bad knee or a bad back. Get up. We're about to turn this place into Club Mariah.''

Ms. Carey, 35, is back with her 10th studio album, a fun-loving R&B/hip-pop album chock-full of tracks made for slumber parties and late nights at the club. ''It's Like That'' has Ms. Carey, whose family nickname is Mimi, reveling in her newfound freedom. ''No stress/no fights,'' she sings, ''I'm leaving it all behind.'' The album, released in Japan a month ago, is at No. 1 there and is expected to open in the top five in the United States. Jermaine Dupri, president of Urban Music at Virgin Records and a longtime Carey collaborator, said that she is far more comfortable creating music than she has been in recent years. After her split with her husband and Svengali, Tommy Mottola, Ms. Carey was left to figure out the industry on her own. ''She was dealing with all the business stuff and lost focus,'' explained Mr. Dupri, who produced several tracks on ''Emancipation.'' ''Now she's in a zone and just really caring only about the music.'' It's no secret that Ms. Carey has suffered a career slump in recent years after riding high throughout the 1990's.

In July 2001, she was admitted to a hospital after an emotional breakdown, which included a semi-striptease on MTV's ''TRL,'' a dish-flinging episode at a downtown Manhattan hotel that left her hands bloody and bizarre entries about exhaustion that she posted on her Web site.

Later that year, her foray into acting, the semi-autographical film, ''Glitter,'' bombed, as did the accompanying album of the same name. Virgin/EMI, her label at the time, paid her $28 million to skedaddle. Of the movie, Ms. Carey said in an interview at the Four Seasons after her Beacon performance, ''It was doomed from the beginning.'' Of the album, she said, ''I don't care if it was the best one of my life, anything released the week of 9/11/2001 was not going to work.''

In 2003, Lyor Cohen, then the chief executive of Ms. Carey's new label, Def Jam, vowed that he would engineer her comeback. He returned Ms. Carey to her big-ballad roots with ''Through the Rain,'' a schmaltz-heavy track about triumph over adversity, from her album ''Charmbracelet.'' In magazines and on television, Ms. Carey rehashed the details of her breakdown and fervently denied speculation that she was mentally unstable. At the time it appeared that she hoped to translate her personal tragedy into sales. ''But,'' Ms. Carey said, ''it's what the label wanted me to do. I really just wanted to move on.''

Though ''Charmbracelet'' has sold more than 1 million copies since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan, it fell woefully short of re-establishing Ms. Carey as a must-watch artist.

It remains to be seen if Antonio Reid, chief executive of Island Def Jam, can resurrect Ms. Carey's career. Mr. Reid, who has worked with divas from Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton to TLC and Usher, has said that Ms. Carey is his top priority. ''It would be a terrible waste if this album was not a success because it's so good and she has worked so hard,'' he said, ''and I want to think that the world still has taste.''

The tag line that is being used to promote ''Emancipation'' is, ''The Return of the Voice.'' A veiled swipe at the studio-manufactured singers that dominate the charts? Not exactly, Mr. Reid said. ''But it's no secret that we live in a time where there are a limited amount of great voices on the radio,'' he added.

Ms. Carey, for her part, said her voice has never left, but rather than wipe out audiences with her five-octave howitzer, she felt inclined to explore the hills and valleys of her music box -- even if it meant alienating some fans with her airy vocal riffs. ''I've just never wanted to only belt,'' she said. ''And when I sing breathy it feels more intimate.''

She called teaming with Mr. Reid, the ''best experience'' with a record executive she's ever had. (She, meanwhile, refers to the time with her ex-husband as ''the reign of terror era.'') ''He can remark about the rhythmic approach I took to a song or the background vocal arrangements, things that only true musicians can pick out,'' she said.

If Ms. Carey's latest effort ultimately proves unsuccessful, it will not be for lack of trying. She spent last month canvassing Europe and Japan promoting ''Emancipation.'' And in addition to her appearance on the VH1 ''Save the Music'' special, Ms. Carey is to perform a miniconcert in the heart of Times Square this morning for ''Good Morning America.'' Then she's off to ''TRL'' in the afternoon, and tonight she will be downtown for an in-store signing at the new Best Buy in NoHo.

It is clear that despite her penchant for skimpy clothing and juvenile preoccupation with butterflies and lambs, Ms. Carey longs to be taken seriously as a real musician and not just a half-naked pinup who happens to have a killer set of pipes. ''If you're not behind a piano or behind a guitar people look at you like you're a diva that just walks in, sings and leaves,'' she said. ''But they don't see me writing; they don't see that I'm involved from the inception to the completion.''

Mr. Reid said he is not worried about Ms. Carey's aging-diva status, her entering the ring with newbies that grew up on her music. ''I absolutely think she can go toe-to-toe with any one of them,'' he said. ''If anything, these artists should be asking if they can go toe-to-toe with her. She's the one that's been in the game 15 years.''

Ms. Carey marveled at the fact that she has been in the game for so long. ''It's really unbelievable,'' she said with a wink in her voice, ''because I'm only 12, so I don't know how that happened.''

Photo: Mariah Carey performing for VH1's ''Save the Music'' special, to be shown Sunday. Her album, ''The Emancipation of Mimi,'' hits stores today. (Photo by Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)